Syria

• Activists said that Arab League observers had witnessed more evidence today of the regime's violence in the city of Homs. A video emerged apparently showing the body of a child being placed on a car belonging to the organisation, while others appear to show gunfire and explosions in the city during the observers' visit. (See 3.44pm.) Activists on the ground told Reuters the monitors were initially unwilling to enter the badly hit district of Baba Amr without the presence of a Syrian army officer- whose presence the locals objected to. But a smaller group returned to the neighbourhood later, they said, only to be prevented from accessing area where detainees were allegedly being held due to gunfire. (See 3.18pm.)

• Such scenes would appear to question the chief observer's earlier statement that the situation in Homs was "reassuring so far". Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, the Sudanese general in charge of the mission, had told Reuters that, though the situation in some places in the city was "not good", there was nothing "frightening, at least while we were there. Things were calm and there were no clashes." Dabi, a staunch loyalist to Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, is coming in for a lot of criticism himself from those who consider his involvement in Darfur an awkward qualification for the AL mission.

• The city of Hama, where the observers are due to be going tomorrow, also saw violence today, according to activists on the ground. Reports said security forces opened fire on protesters, but the toll varied: AP said six people were killed, while Reuters said that at least seven had been wounded.

• Syrian state TV said the authorities had released 755 people detained during the nine-month-old uprising, in a move apparently timed to coincide with the observers' visit. The prisoners had been involved "in recent incidents" but their "hands were not stained with blood", a report said. Hours earlier, Human Rights Watch accused the government of transferring detainees to off-limits military bases. It urged the Arab League to insist such areas were opened up to scrutiny. (See 9.15am.)

• In a sign of the increasingly militarised nature of the Syrian uprising, at least four soliders were killed in an ambush in the south of the country by military defectors. AP reported that the ambush targeted a joint military and security convoy on the road between the villages of Khirbet Ghazaleh and Dael, in Daraa province.

Egypt

• Sami Anan, deputy chairman of the ruling military council (Scaf), has been summoned by prosecutors to give evidence in the trial of Hosni Mubarak and several members of his entourage. As the fotmer president turned up to court for the first time in several months- only for the trial to be again postponed, lawyers for protesters who died during the crackdown insisted on Anan's being called, reports Ahram Online. Prosecutors also reportedly asked for the director of the Egyptian Museum to be questioned in court.

• An ultraconservative Islamist group which has performed surprisingly well in the elections so far has said sending Christmas greetings to Christians is "against our beliefs." AP reported that Nadar Bakar, spokesman for the Al Nour party, said Muslims should only give greetings to Christians on "personal occasions," not religious ones. But the move only emphasised Al Nour's isolation: Al Azhar, the most eminent religious institution, issued a religious edict approving Christmas greetings. The Muslim Brotherhood responded by sending "its best Christmas wishes to our brotherly Christians and Muslims as well."

Iran

• Iran's navy chief has issued the second warning in as many days that the country is more than capable of cutting off the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway through which a sixth of the world's oil flows. Yesterday Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi threatened to close the strait, cutting off oil exports, if the West imposes sanctions on Iran's oil shipments.

3.44pm: It may be becoming harder and harder for the Arab League observers to say the situation in Homs is reassuring- particularly if videos such as this keep on surfacing.

Posted by the Local Co-Ordinating Committee network, this clip apparently shows the body of a child, Ahmed Mraay, wrapped in blankets, being placed gently on the bonnet of a car with the Arab League emblem on it. He lies there as men around him place pieces of ammunition on top of him.

In this video, too, the observers can't have been too reassured. Gunfire can be heard as they tour Homs.

3.27pm: Reports from the violence in Hama today are mixed- AP is saying six people were killed, while Reuters is saying at least seven were wounded.

At any rate, the city appears to have suffered another bout of violence as security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse a protest against the regime just ahead of the Arab League's visit.

In its footage, al Jazeera showed one man bleeding from the neck as others shouted in the background.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the protesters were heading towards Orontes square in the city centre for a sit-in at the symbolic location where demonstrations were crushed earlier this year.

Security forces were not visible in the Jazeera footage. Unarmed protesters, some masked, were heard shouting "Assad forces are shooting us." The protesters then began chanting: "Freedom for ever" and "We will have our revenge from you Bashar".

There appear to be several clips in circulation. Here is one, purportedly shot in Hama today, which shows a chaotic scene as a rally is dispersed. It was shared with Al Jazeera by the Syrian Revolution Coordinators' Union, an anti-government activist group.

3.18pm: A quick update on the Arab League observers in Baba Amr: Reuters is now saying that, despite an earlier contretemps between monitors and locals concerning the presence of an army officer, a small group of monitors have in fact returned to the neighbourhood.

Activists said a smaller group of monitors returned without the officer and were escorted by residents and activists on a tour of the turbulent district.

But the tour was not straightforward, the report adds.

The monitors could not enter an area where residents said they believed detainees were being hidden because gunfire erupted. It was not clear where the shooting came from.

"Residents were accompanying the team to the area to show them where they believe detainees are being held when suddenly there was gunfire near the checkpoint," said Rami Abdelrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

2.56pm: Now, here's a question for you: which Arab game show host wants Bashar al-Assad to stay in power and believes the protests rocking Syria are the result of a conspiracy?

George Kurdahi presented Man sa yarbah 2 malyoon, a Middle Eastern version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

The answer is George Kurdahi, presenter of Lebanon's 'Who Will Win the Million?'- an Arab version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'. He has weighed into geopolitics, declaring his support for the Damascus regime and his hope that Syria will be saved the chaos sweeping the rest of the region.

Kurdahi has also accused several television channels of "collaborating" with Israel against Syria. One of them, Al Arabiya, has reported the comments made to the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai on its website.

Those channels are collaborating with Israel against Syria and I made a statement before on a pro-Syrian regime channel that Syria will emerge victorious from this crisis and will be saved from those conspiracies.

The Syrian regime will emerge from this impasse much stronger.

Kurdahi adds that he objects to any kind of bloodshed and that he had earlier called upon the Syrian regime to allow peaceful protests. But he doesn't think much of the Arab Spring.

I know that democracy means saying what you think frankly, and frankly I believe that the Arab Spring was not a spontaneous action, but rather one that spread chaos all over the region and totally paralyzed it.

2.45pm: France has given short shrift to General Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi's assertion that the situation in Homs was "reassuring".

The observers were in Homs for too brief a period to be able to "understand the reality of the situation", said Bernard Valero, spokesman for the Quai d'Orsay. Referring to the security forces reportedly opening fire on protesters yesterday afternoon, he added, according to Le Monde:

Their presence did not prevent the bloody crackdown from continuing in this city. The Arab League observers must go back to this martyrs' city without delay, go everywhere in it freely and have all the necessary contacts with the locals.

2.29pm: The focus may be on Homs, but Hama, another hotbed of anti-regime protests, is also suffering, activists say.

Security forces have today fired gunshots and tear gas at protesters there, killing at least six, according to AP.

Several thousand protesters were trying to reach the city's main Assi square to stage a sit-in amid a heavy security presence when troops opened fire to disperse them.

Hama-based activist Saleh Abu Kamel said he had the names of six people who were killed and many wounded. The number could not be immediately confirmed.

Activists say they expect a team of Arab League monitors now in Syria to head to Hama on Thursday.

Meanwhile, this video claims to show the shelling of Baba Amr during the Arab League's visit to Homs. It was not possible to verify this.

2.13pm: Sami Anan, deputy chairman of the ruling military council (Scaf), has been summoned by prosecutors to give evidence in the trial of Hosni Mubarak and several members of his entourage.

He is not the only one in the spotlight. The report says that prosecutors also asked for the director of the Egyptian Museum to be questioned in court.

Surveillance cameras from the museum, ‎which is located adjacent to Tahrir Square, reportedly captured ‎video footage of police forces shooting unarmed protesters ‎during the January uprising. Lawyers for the prosecution, for ‎their part, say the footage was sabotaged at the trial's outset.‎

1.53pm: Apologies for the delay. Technical hitches at Guardian towers.

The residents refused to meet with the monitors with the officer standing by, activists said, while the observers insisted on the officer being there. The result was, they said, that the AL team did not enter what is arguably the neighbourhood to have seen the most violence in the whole of Syria.

Ahmed, a local activist and resident of Baba Amr, was quoted as saying:

The monitors left the Baba Amr neighbourhood because they refused to enter the neighbourhood without being escorted by Lieutenant Colonel Mudeen Neda from the Fourth Division. The families of the martyrs and the wounded refused to meet them in his presence, and the monitors left.

Syria

• Thousands of Homs residents have taken to the streets again as Arab League observers tour the cradle of Syria's uprising for a second day. The LCC network reported that 7,000 people had turned out for the funeral processions of two men killed in the violence. The fresh shows of dissent come despite a heavy security presence in the city, which a team of four observers is visiting. The observers are expected to reach Idlib, Daraa and Hama by this evening or tomorrow.

• Observers saw nothing in Homs yesterday that was "frightening", according to chief observer General Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi. While he admitted that in some parts of the city the situation was "not good", he said the general mood was calm and "reassuring", adding that more investigation was necessary. (See 10.52am.) Dabi, a staunch loyalist to Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, is coming in for a lot of criticism himself from those who consider his involvement in Darfur an awkward qualification for the AL mission.

• The comments are likely to fuel anger among activists on the ground and abroad, who accuse the Arab League delegation of failing to carry out a proper monitoring mission. An activist in Homs told the BBC the "negative" observers had been unwilling to fully explore the damage done to the city (see 11.15am). However he was adamant that the observers had seen tanks on the streets- something which Dabi has denied, saying the observers saw only "armoured vehicles".

• Other criticisms have been directed at the regime for failing to facilitate the mission: the opposition Syrian National Council has accused it of keeping the observers in their hotels for too long, while Human Rights Watch has accused the government of transferring detainees to off-limits military bases. It urged the Arab League to insist such areas were opened up to scrutiny. (See 9.15am.) Hours later, the regime announced that 755 prisoners had been released. There was no way of confirming the claim.

• In a sign of the increasingly militarised nature of the Syrian uprising, at least four soliders have been killed in an ambush in the south of the country by military defectors. AP reported that the ambush targeted a joint military and security convoy on the road between the villages of Khirbet Ghazaleh and Dael, in Daraa province.

Iran

• A senior Saudi oil official has said Gulf Arab nations are prepared to offset any potential loss of Iranian crude after Tehran threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's vice president Mohamed Reza Rahimi said his country was prepared to make such a move if Western nations imposed sanctions on its oil shipments.

11.56am: Syria's state-run news agency says authorities have released 755 prisoners who were detained in the government crackdown on dissent over the past nine months, AP reports.

SANA says the release excludes prisoners with "blood on their hands."

The release of prisoners is one of the terms of the Arab League peace plan to stop the bloodshed in Syria and comes a day after Arab monitors were allowed to deploy in the country to ensure authorities are complying with the plan.

For Human Rights Watch's claims that the regime has been transferring detainees to military bases out of the reach of the observers, see 9.15am.

11.47am: In a sign of the increasingly militarised nature of the Syrian uprising, AP reports that at least four soliders have been killed today in an ambush by military defectors. It adds:

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the ambush targeted a joint military and security convoy on the road between the villages of Khirbet Ghazaleh and Dael, in [the southern] Daraa province.

Meanwhile the LCC opposition activist network is reporting that more than 7,000 people have turned out to take part in the funeral of two men killed in Homs.

Other protests have been reported in the Qusoor neighbourhood and in Ter Maala. This video- hosted by the LCC- is apparently of the latter, but it could not be independently authenticated.

11.36am: More outrage over General Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi- "the unlikeliest leader of a humanitarian mission the world has ever seen", as David Kenner argues in this Foreign Policy piece.

He is a staunch loyalist of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity for his government's policies in Darfur.

And Dabi's own record in the restive Sudanese region, where he stands accused of presiding over the creation of the feared Arab militias known as the "janjaweed," is enough to make any human rights activist blanch.

The regime today tried to hide their tanks...but the government didn't hide all of them. Even [when] the monitors were here, they saw tanks. They saw them.

We tried a lot to make conversation with them and to convince them to come closer and to see more destroyed buildings, to see more people who [were] arrested. They were very negative.

Ausama Monajed, an adviser to the secretary general of the Syrian National Council, accused the regime of impeding the observers' access.

They have been kept in the hotel for a long time [with] the regime not allowing them to go freely for the first day or two. And they're not facilitating the necessary logistical support for them to go and roam and visit whatever areas they seek...

Monajed said he expected a "huge demonstration" in the model of the one in Homs yesterday to take place in eastern Deir Ezzor when the observers go there.

The regime has not been able to control things as they were hoping to do. Let's hope that the Arab League monitors' report will detail the atrocities and massacres committed against civilians and young children in Syria.

There were some places where the situation was not good. But there wasn't anything frightening at least while we were there. Things were calm and there were no clashes.

He did say, however, that more investigation was needed.

The observers will fan out across the country in the coming hours, visiting the protest hubs of Hama and Idlib as well as Daraa and the outskirts of Damascus, al-Dabi said.

As of Wednesday evening, and from Thursday at dawn, the observers will deploy in Idlib and Hama (in the north) and in Daraa (south).

Meanwhile the criticisms of al Dabi himself are growing. Amnesty International has joined the chorus of dissent, warning that at the time when Dabi led it, Sudan's military intelligence "was responsible for the arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, and torture or other ill-treatment of numerous people in Sudan".

The Arab League's decision to appoint as the head of the observer mission a Sudanese general on whose watch severe human rights violations were committed in Sudan risks undermining the League's efforts so far and seriously calls into question the mission's credibility.

10.38am: A team of four observers is currently touring various districts in Homs as protesters gear up for a second day of huge demonstrations, according to the AP.

The willingness to go out into the streets again comes despite a large security presence in the city, the report adds. One resident, speaking over the phone, said:

I can see riot police with shields and batons on main streets and intersections, they are everywhere.

The desire to show the Arab League observers exactly how strong the protest movement is appears not to be unique to Homs.

10.17am: This grab from Egyptian state television shows the once mighty Hosni Mubarak being wheeled into a Cairo court covered in a green blanket on a hospital gurney.

The former dictator has been charged with complicity in the deaths of nearly 840 protesters in the crackdown against the revolution. AP reported that he was brought from a helicopter and taken to an ambulance for a short ride to the court.

Next in line of witnesses whose testimony was demanded by both the prosecution and the defense is chief of staff Lt. Gen. Sami Hafez Anan, the second-highest ranking official in the ruling military council.

Also on trial with Mubarak and facing the same charges are his former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and six senior former security officials.

Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, also face corruption charges.The prosecution's case depends heavily on accounts of members of the former president's inner circle including ex-spy chief Omar Suleiman, who was appointed vice president by Mubarak during the uprising.

The families called for faster prosecution of those accused of killing demonstrators as well as the removal of Adly-era officials from the Interior Ministry.

A smaller group also gathered at the academy to express solidarity with the former president and tout his innocence. The academy has beefed up security to prevent clashes between demonstrators.

9.51am: The international community will "consider other means to protect Syrian civilians" if the regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to "resist and disregard" an Arab League peace plan, the US has warned.

Washington condemned the escalation in violence ahead of the observers' arrival in Syria, said state department spaokesman Mark C Toner, adding:

The [Arab League] monitors should have unfettered access to protestors and to areas most severely affected by the regime's crackdown. They bear a heavy responsibility in trying to protect Syrian civilians from the depredations of a murderous regime.

The next steps that the United States and the international community take will consider the extent of genuine cooperation from Syrian authorities with the Arab League monitoring mission, and the government's degree of compliance with the other elements of the Arab League initiative.

If the Syrian regime continues to resist and disregard Arab League efforts, the international community will consider other means to protect Syrian civilians.

9.32am: There is a clear division among Arab League states as to how best to proceed with Syria, AP reports.

While its members agree Assad must go, they are divided on how and are wary that an escalation in the crisis might bring international intervention. As a result, the observer mission was their best compromise.

On the other, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon and Algeria are eager to give the Arab peace plan a chance.

The Egypt-led camp, the officials [who spoke to AP] said, hopes that enough troops and weapons will be pulled out from Syrian cities to prompt Syrians to take to the streets in large numbers, putting Assad under the kind of pressure that forced Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali out of office this year.

9.15am: Only one day in and already questions are being asked of the Arab League's month-long observer mission in Syria.

It says it has spoken to witnesses who have told them that, in the days leading up to the monitors' arrival, prisoners were transfered to military bases which remain off-limits to the observers. Calling on the Arab League to "insist on full access to all Syrian sites used for detention," HRW quoted its Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson as saying:

Syria's subterfuge makes it essential for the Arab League to draw clear lines regarding access to detainees, and be willing to speak out when those lines are crossed.

We'll be focusing today on the Arab League's observer mission in Syria, and on the resumption of Hosni Mubarak's trial in Cairo.

Syria

• Arab League observers are resuming their monitoring work in the city of Homs a day after tens of thousands of people turned out to welcome their arrival.The head of the delegation, Sudanese General Mustafa Dabi, told Reuters he believed the situation in the restive city to be "reassuring so far". Activists however said the regime had not stopped its assault on civilian protesters, accusing it of opening fire on protesters and killing several people in Homs yesterday.

• Dabi's role as chief observer is drawing criticism from activists who say his chequered past leaves him unqualified to be a standard-bearer for human rights. Dabi is a former head of military intelligence under the regime of President Omar al-Bashir. Omer Ismail, a Sudanese analyst for the Enough Project, a Washington-based organisation focused on genocide and crimes against humanity, told the Guardian:

When he served as Sudan's former head of military intelligence … alleged war crimes including genocide were committed on his watch.

Instead of heading a team entrusted with a probe of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by Syria, the general should be investigated by the ICC for evidence of similar crimes in Sudan.

Egypt

• Hosni Mubarak, the onetime dictator, has been wheeled back into a Cairo courtroom as his trial on charges of killing protesters and abuse of power resumes. The trial, which has been suspended for several months, is fascinating Egyptians and the Arab world. Mubarak, 83, could face the death penalty if convicted.

• Forced "virginity tests" on female detainees have been ruled illegal after a court ordered an end to the practice. Hundreds of activists were in a Cairo courtroom to hear a judge say the army could not use the 'test' on women held in military prisons in a case filed by Samira Ibrahim, one of seven women subjected to the practice after being arrested in Tahrir Square during a protest earlier this year.

Israel and Palestinian territories

• Israel's president has urged "the entire nation" to support the battle "to save the majority from the hands of a small minority" amid rising tensions between the country's secular and religious Jews on one side, and extremist ultra-orthodox groups on the other. As thousands of Israelis gathered in the town of Beit Shemesh for a protest following an attack on an eight-year-old girl for dressing "immodestly", Simon Peres told the country:

We are fighting for the soul of the nation and the essence of the state.